Dielectric breakdown in metal-loaded polyethylene

Abstract

The failure statistics of polyethylene plaques loaded with a know volume fraction of metallic particles of fixed size distribution have been determined. The results are compared with the predictions of the percolation breakdown model. It is shown that the large decrease observed in characteristic strengths at low defect loadings obeys the theoretical expression derived for the model. However, the type of breakdown statistic could not be determined unambiguously.